NAACP to Co-Host March on Washington August 24th

WHO:Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of NAACP Board of Directors; Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO; Hilary O. Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy; Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Director of Economic Programs for the NAACP; Sammie Dow, Director of the NAACP Youth and College Division

WHAT:
On Saturday, August 24, the NAACP will march on the National Mall for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. NAACP leaders will be available for comment in the weeks before and after the march. For interview requests, please contact Michelle Nealy at (443)562-4233 or Ben Wrobel at (917) 846-0658. Press inquiries will be honored on a first call, first serve basis.

Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, leaders from civil rights, organized labor, housing, media, education and politics will once again convene in the nation’s capital to urge Congress to create more jobs, protect voting rights, and to address the litany of recent attacks on immigration and workers’ rights.

“If this year has shown us anything, it's that the work of the 1963 march is not yet finished,” stated Jealous. “Voting rights are under attack, black unemployment continues to soar and thousands of black children are living in impoverished neighborhoods and attending segregated schools. Black youth are being gunned down each and every day in senseless acts of violence. Trayvon Martin lies in the ground after one such senseless act.”

WHEN/WHERE:
March on Washington – Saturday, August 24
Rally at the Lincoln Memorial begins at 8 a.m. followed by march to the King Memorial.

March Route:
• Down Daniel French Drive to the southern portion of Independence Ave.
• We will march down Independence Ave. to the King Memorial.
• The King Memorial is the official dispersal point. Once there, marchers will be told to go to their buses or the Global Freedom Festival.

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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our five “Game Changer” issue areas here.